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Fighting Fake Lakes

Cypress pond off main channel of Pearl in LeFleur's Bluff State Park.

Damming rivers threatens habitat, and the freshwater flows that people and fisheries downstream rely on. In response to these and other threats, communities across the nation are beginning to take down old dams, but the state of Mississippi is “swimming upstream.”

Two new dams and fake lakes have been proposed in Mississippi and are actively being promoted by some state and local governments. The reasons given for these fake lakes on Mississippi’s two major coastal plain river systems, the Pearl and Pascagoula, merely mask economic development as a driving force.

Pearl River Fake Lake in Jackson

In Jackson, Mississippi, the Pearl River is threatened by more damming to build another lake on its main channel. Although this project is being sold as flood control, the true focus is to foster real estate development and provide economic development.

The so-called “One Lake” plan has been advanced to accomplish these twin purposes even though it is the most environmentally disruptive option for addressing flood control. The Corps of Engineers wrote a plan in 1996 for levee improvements for Jackson that would protect it against more major flooding. If economic development wasn’t so important, Jackson might have already improved its levee system.

In 2017, the “One Lake” project sponsor - the Rankin Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District - is expected to release a draft feasibility study and a draft Environmental Impact Statement featuring the lake project as their preferred option. The lake will be presented as the best choice among other alternatives which include levee improvements, methods such as floodplain buyouts, and a no-action alternative.

It’s not the best choice! We’re working to make sure the Pearl River get the comprehensive restoration it needs, not a new fake lake and dam project.

“Lake George” and the Pascagoula River

George County, Mississippi’s government has advanced plans for dams and lake creation on tributaries of Mississippi’s other major coastal plain river: the Pascagoula. In the lower reaches of the Pascagoula Basin, plans to dam Big Cedar Creek in George and Jackson Counties are being proposed to store water for industry, and so that the resulting lakes can add to the recreational opportunities in the area.

Adding water to the Pascagoula when it is at extremely low flow in drought conditions is not necessary to prevent ecological harm; and industries that supposedly need this water to be added to the river have not asked for water storage lakes to be built. This leaves recreation and economic development as the remaining reasons for converting the creeks, surrounding farmland, and wetlands into 2,800 acres of lakes.

Protecting Our Water Resources

The efforts on both the Pearl and the Pascagoula Rivers to create new lakes are sleight-of-hand in the service of development and the creation of lake front real estate. These two rivers are important because they discharge precious fresh water to the estuaries and marshes at their lower ends, fostering healthy, productive wetland habitats and oyster reefs, and play an essential part in the health of the Mississippi Sound. Their fresh water flow mixes with salt water to achieve the right balance of salinity in the coastal estuaries that serve as nursery areas and as the foundation of the seafood resources in both Louisiana and Mississippi. Damming on big important coastal river systems like these always threatens this balance. We are fighting to maintain that balance in Mississippi and around the Gulf.